Busan, Korea

Spending time with Nina and her crew in Busan, basically pretending I lived there, eating poms and mikans in my little apartment at night and watching Laguna Beach and hearing the rooster crow from the courtyard.

Eating BBQ at the place across the street and flicking the tab off the soju lid.

Drinking soju and wanting to die from the brutal hangover the next day.

Making fun of everything and making Danielle crack up in her cute way.

Going out with all the expats and wearing fake glasses, because why not?

Dancing to ABBA in every single cab we took.

Going shopping in PNU and wishing I had space to buy 100 sweaters.

Wandering from beach to beach.

Going for a giant cauldron of pork spine soup.

Dancing to Rumours with an old man and a drunk old lady in a bar full of vinyl at four am. The bartender said “No, this to me is a very special moment.”

Are oysters shellfish?

Talking all the time with Danielle and Nina about a moment that baffled us.

Doing laundry in my OWN apartment.

Running past the weird apartment next door to mine because his door was always open and he was creepy.

Singing ♫ “The Temple By the Sea” ♫.

Dancing to all the songs Nina put on at that weird bar in Jangsen and watching a bar full of expats sing Backstreet Boys.

Eating a trough of fried chicken served on a bed of potato chips at 2am.

Visiting Danielle in her dark apartment.

Space Noribong.

Losing my wallet. Lost known location: McDonalds.

Lying in a weird saunas and walking in foot baths and chilling in recliners watching Korean dramas at SPALAND.

Eating Indian food while a man gulped down soju and almost barfed in front of us. He kept repeating “You don’t know me, but I love you” in English. A little boy kept turning up the crazy 80s Indian bollywood movies. Nick kept talking about bugs.

Eating steamed dumplings that were made right before our eyes by a cute mom and daughter, who giggled at our attempts at Korean.

Holding a limp brown poodle in a t-shirt in an upstairs bar.

Eating some kind of eel cooked in a red chili sauce that was so hot and so spicy I could barely taste it in a plastic yellow tent in the fish market.

Going up to the roof to photograph the apartment towers at sunset.

Danielle talking to the cab driver’s 13 year old son: “What are you wearing? Oh, pajamas? One piece or two piece?” The kid’s favourite show is Running Man and his favourite music is Gangnam Style.

Taking the gondola up the mountain with Nina and gawking at the rows and rows and row of apartment towers, so dystopian, then walking down and coming across a temple with a cabbage patch with an insane view and a monk going to work out and speakers hidden in the woods playing Buddha Beats.

The weird amusement park in the park with the swan boats and the one old lady going round and round on them with her arms folded and her face grumpy.

Getting the hang of “Annyonhaseo! Kamhasamida! Jyogio!”

Doing face masks with Nina, god the face masks are so cheap and awesome in Korea.